The best the best from music’s most beloved martian, Kid Cudi.
Looking back, it’s apparent that 2008 was a significant turning point for hip hop. Physical media and the old ways discovering artists were gradually being phased out by an interconnected network blogs and social media sites like MySpace and YouTube. The business rap music was rapidly evolving in accordance with the times, as a new crop “viral” artists began building dedicated followings by releasing free mixtapes online.
None would go on to be more influential than Kid Cudi, a Cleveland native who went from being an underdog with zero career prospects to having Roc-A-Fella’s college dropout on speed dial. With Kanye’s cosign, Cudi became more than just the poster child the blogwave era. He honed a unique and versatile toolkit that included multi-genre covers and a mix rapping and crooning, all without pandering or showboating. His meditations on cannabis and explorations self, described by Jeff Weiss as “sad robot rap,” were endearing, wildly original, and shied away from the one-dimensional hyperbole that characterized the music many his peers.
Cudi ultimately grew into his role as the principal curator a moody subgenre hip hop that has infiltrated and in many ways defined the scope nearly everything that followed in the wake his monstrous breakthrough. He helped carry the commercial bility synthetic textures into contemporary hip hop, expanding upon Ye’s Graduation formula to carve his own EDM-inflected niche in the Earth’s stratosphere. He predicted and subsequently fostered many the dominant musical trends the past decade, and even penned four songs (including hit singles “Heartless” and “Paranoid”) for 808s & Heartbreak, widely considered to be one the most important records the 21st century.
While there’s no denying that Cudi’s impact on music and hip hop culture will continue to reverberate long after he decides to hang up his space suit, it is the honesty and openness his musical approach that has resonated the most with audiences. Sappy tropes aside, Cudi’s music has proven to be both immensely therapeutic and empowering for many feeling lost and out touch in a digital world fraught with ample reasons for despair. He is the unlikely hero who is easy to root for because many people see in him what they see in themselves. The loneliness, depression, and anxiety stemming from withered relationships and the unforgiving nature humanity is so much more than just contrived subject matter used to drum up platinum plaques; it represents a very real bond connecting Cudi to listeners. He has never pressed to having a cure-all for conquering demons, but instead counsels that rebirth is indeed possible, fering forth a lifeline for those who feel as if they have no one to turn to at their lowest. His music is familial, his message universal. In the heart-wrenching Facebook note announcing that he was checking himself into rehab for suicidal urges, Cudi reiterated that it was a daily battle, but one that can be won: “I deserve to have peace. I deserve to be happy and smiling. Why not me?”
For all the cliches that get tacked on to being labeled a once-in-a-lifetime talent or the artist who “single-handedly changed my life,” the self-proclaimed outcast unequivocally belongs on the Mount Rushmore this generation, right alongside the likes Chief Keef, Drake, Future, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Kendrick Lamar. Because when Scott Mescudi said that he was our “big brother,” he meant it in a way beyond the immediate association that comes with kinship.
Disclaimer: this list encompasses Cudi’s solo discography and songs where he appears as the main act. As such, it does not include songs where he is a featured artist.
Producer:Kid Cudi
Album:Satellite Flight: The Journey To Mother Moon
Cudi’s unapologetic vulnerability and individualism are an essential part his musical signature. Although he tends to wield his creativity through experimental melodies, he occasionally unleashes a torrent straight-raps to get his point across. That’s exactly what he does on “Too Bad I Have to Destroy You Now,” a song whose grandiosity sounds like it was lifted straight from the Hayden Planetarium. It’s an intergalactic sonata that pulsates with energy as Cudi the fatalist waxes about his destiny. The naysayers may continue to doubt him both openly and behind his back, but the truth always comes to light, and Cudi is slowly gaining confidence in his purpose among the stars.
Producer:Kid Cudi
Album: Indicud
On an album that spends a great deal time dissecting the black hole that is depression, “Immortal” sees Cudi recapturing his Lion Heart. The tribulations that dogged his past have suddenly sent “lightning” coursing through his veins, a supernatural shift that seems to herald his return from the depths. This creative spark is evident in the song’s structure: a screaming Billy Madison revels in the moment empowerment, grabbing the listener’s attention as a reversed sample MGMT’s “Congratulations” purrs into place.
Producer: Crookers
Album: A Kid Named Cudi
Before Drake was linking with Swedish indie poppers on 2009’s So Far Gone EP or Kanye was painting pictures heartache with 808s, Cudi was ushering in the digital age with a seamless blend rap, indie rock, electronica, and dubstep. On “Embrace the Martian,” he dipped into the underground electronic scene and came up huge in recruiting one the internet’s favorite house production teams. Even amidst the hubbub Crookers’ frenetic instrumentation, Cudi is remarkably self-aware: he just wants to be accepted and recognized as real. He’s no “Cloverfield” villain, but he has every intention altering the landscape a fickle music industry. “Embrace the Martian” is founded on a simple yet relatable concept that is executed to a tee, and is representative the transitive state hip hop in the late 2000s.
Producer:Plain Pat & Pharrell Williams
Album: Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’
Cudi’s eternal faith in the choices that he’s made is the central theme “By Design.” Fully submerged in the go-with-the-flow mentality, Cudi stands by his decisions, understanding that while hindsight may be 20/20, he’s fortunate to have made the most the opportunities that presented themselves. It’s a basic if immersive philosophy that spearheads much Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’: rather than steering negative or wallowing in his destructive tendencies, he basks in the warmth his own “frequency.” Pharrell and Cudi’s career-launching accomplice Plain Pat lend mint sonics to the song’s headliner and featured guest artist Andre 3000, who delivers an enlivened chorus.
Producer: Dot Da Genius
Album:A Kid Named Cudi
This ethereal cruise through “The Land” rightfully deserves to be the introductory track at every Browns and Cavaliers game from here on out. Cudi’s picture perfect ode to the city that gifted him his “cool” is filled with a loopy love and admiration for the “double-O.” It’s not difficult to imagine Cudi “freakin’ Black & Milds” in his Cutlass Supreme while turning lanes in his hometown. Consider this Cudi’s version “This Is Why I’m Hot.”
Producer: Outkast
Album:A Kid Named Cudi
Opening with the same line that Andre 3000 used on the original song “Chonkyfire,” Cudi takes a deep dive into the morass whatever substance will help him dull the pain. His ego percolates in the sensation being “down and out,” warning the listener that they should think twice about wanting to enter his mind. A second verse reveals his intentions for telling this “no guts, no glory” story: the soulful guitar cuts out ever so briefly to allow Cudi breathing room to brood, as he contemplates the explicit nature his life and the prospect one day reuniting with his father at the gates heaven.
Producer: S1 & Jon Brion
Album:A Kid Named Cudi
Cudi’s steez is sky-high, and so is his flow. Mobbed by his fans (“I’m country to the seas”), “super duper Cudi” is looking and feeling the part: the candy-paint rag top, Bape gum bottoms, and thirty-day tag on the Jaguar are all part the ensemble for Shaker Heights’ freshest emcee. With Chip Tha Ripper in tow, and stacks bursting from his 10.Deep pants pockets, Cudi is as nimble and clever as ever.
Producer: Ratatat
Album:Man on the Moon: The End Day
It’s a full moon and Cudi’s transformation into a primordial “werewolf” sorts has taken hold. Feeling emboldened by the carnal desires that the night brings, he prowls the streets looking for the woman who can “find the man within the beast” and help him change his ways. With only love and companionship to reverse the curse, the devilish spinning Ratatat’s electronics fuel “the lone wolf” onward.
Producer: Rostam
Cudder’s eccentricity and musical tastes know no bounds. Sampling Vampire Weekend’s “Ottoman,” he proceeds to blaze up the set with a “heap good weed” to boot. Cudi remains unphased by the haters that want to see him come up short and the tabloids whipping up endless batches speculation surrounding his personal life. Whilst in this sativa-addled state (“tap-dancing on a cloud”), Cudi can’t be restrained by earthly concerns. With the smoke to buoy his voyage, he’s going to continue putting it down for his fans.
Producer: Free School
Album:Man on the Moon: The End Day
This “wake and bake” is the curtain call Cudi’s debut. He’s come to the conclusion that people are going to judge him no matter what, so he may as well shrug it f and look ahead to the promise sailing into a new tomorrow like Peter Pan. Hope, compounded by a love for “higher learning,” is Cudi’s pixie dust for staying afloat, and he’s all in on living his life to the fullest. Common’s closing narration provides some rather foreboding hints that the second installment in the Man on the Moon series may not be as rose-tinted as the bookend its predecessor.
Producer: Jim Jonsin
Album: Man on the Moon II: The Legend Mr. Rager
With a strumming guitar lick to kick things into gear, Cudi and Kanye dive into a stadium rap-rock track that dramatizes a doomed relationship. The perils the famous rapper stereotype (“I’m in the magazines, on the TV/No matter where you are, you might hear me”) fer plenty source material for the two kindred spirits. Cudi bemoans the “new nightmare” knowing that his feelings aren’t reciprocated, while Kanye elaborates with scatalogical puns on the “writer’s block” that he endured as a result “Aria’s” antics.
Producer: The Smeezingtons, Emile & No I.D.
Album:Man on the Moon II: The Legend Mr. Rager
Much like graphic-novel-turned-film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Cudi conceives a tale that will take the viewer far beyond the horizon his imagination and into some “‘generation next’ shit.” The ominous “other side” that Cee-Lo sings on the hook contains instructions that are both enticing and proundly f-putting. Once aboard the enchanted flight, there can be no going back: Cudi has welcomed the listener into a world where only the inevitable end holds any semblance meaning.
Producer: Emile
Album:Man on the Moon II: The Legend Mr. Rager
“These motherfuckers can’t fathom the wizardry” is perhaps one Cudi’s most iconic one-liners. “Mojo So Dope” invokes the essence Austin Power’s sex drive to weave a song that reads like a case study on the scatter brain tendencies its author. Cudi bounces around the confines his skull, touching on everything from his position in the 2010 XXL Freshman class, the uncle that unknowingly contributed to his nephew’s early music career, to drowning his sorrows with Old English. The trauma is still as present as ever, but it’s augmented by nostalgia and the uncertainty his future.
Producer: Emile
Album: Man on the Moon: The End Day
“Listen good/I don’t have nobody” pinpoints the rhetoric that defines the horrors things that go bump in the night. Haunting strings that serve as a backdrop to “Solo Dolo” almost seem to pluck away at Cudi’s sanity, as he travels deeper and deeper into the terrifying and existential unknown. It’s a riveting fever dream that trumpets the album’s aptly titled second act, Rise the Night Terrors.
Producer: Emile
Album: Man on the Moon: The End Day
In the opening to this cloud-kissed symphony, Cudi is in sheer disbelief at having achieved such rarified air, as if he’s happened upon some forbidden plane existence that must be too good to be true. A surprisingly uplifting record from the man known for his forays into fear and misery, the inexplicable soaring “Cudi Zone” vividly captures a one–a-kind escape from the depravities the mortal realm. Detractors and critics are forgotten, as Cudi drifts into a place where even the “Devil in a hot pink dress” can’t touch him.
Producer: Dot Da Genius, Mike Dean & Kid Cudi
Album: Man on the Moon II: The Legend Mr. Rager
If “Maui Wowie” was a joyful ode to the lengths that Cudi would go to achieve his next high, then “Marijuana” is a fully-formed realization the side effects the “pretty green bud” that wracks his mind. Cudi understands the dependency that is bred from always needing to be “stoned on the run-run,” but can’t seem to turn his back on the only thing that keeps him level. A spiraling piano loop mimics Cudi’s descent. As the track appropriately comes to a close at four minutes and twenty seconds, Cudi interjects with a timestamp that seems to foreshadow his eventual relapse into the madness.
Producer:Kid Cudi
Album:Indicud
“Just What I Am” is the first track that Cudi made for Indicud, an album that is frequently overlooked and doesn’t get the praise that it rightfully deserves. The project introduced Cudi the producer, a creator eager to shape the trajectory his constellation-crossed journey while behind the boards. The song’s repetition “I’m what you made God” feels like a continuation Cudi’s constant struggle to convince himself that he is not some mistake from above, but rather a purposefully imperfect construction. The minute personal insights that shape Cudi’s denial and dismissal pressional help (“I had to ball for therapy, my shrink don’t think that helps at all”) are driven home in the poetic asphyxiation the closing lines: “Whiskey bottles on the sinks and floors/Everyday to find sane’s a chore, amidst a dream with no exit doors.”
Producer:Kanye West, Kid Cudi
Album:Man on the Moon: The End Day
The idea for “Sky Might Fall” supposedly came to Cudi while he was with Kanye West at a Big Sean listening session, at which point the pensive martian and his mentor hastened to bring the epiphany to life. From the storm-grey skies melancholy emerged a ray hope that Cudi put to paper, culminating in a song that attempted to make sense the nightmares thwarting his inner peace. Though the darkest hours “Sky Might Fall” are familiar dystopian territory, Cudi’s “soul searching in every way” feels amplified, thanks in part to Kanye’s masterful Midas touch.
Producer:Kid Cudi, Mike Dean & Dot Da Genius
Album: Kids See Ghosts
Built around the guitar riff from Kurt Cobain’s “Burn the Rain,” “Cudi Montage” details the feelings suffocation that plague Cudi and the salvation that he prays for to ease the weight the world on his shoulders. The song hits a nerve in a way that even “Reborn” and “Fire” fail to encapsulate; the cyclical nature their respective past struggles has made both Cudi and Kanye reassess their life path in a way that neither could have predicted. Reinvigorated and rejuvenated by their newfound faith, and anchored by one the best verses from Ye in years, it’s a fitting ending for an album that reaches for something more and hits all the right notes in the process.
Producer: Emile
Album:Man on the Moon II: The Legend Mr. Rager
The brilliance Cudi’s music ten lies in its stark simplicity, and “Mr. Rager” is no exception. Ensnared by addiction and wondering whether an overdose will finally bring an end to the fantasy (life), Cudi comes face-to-face with “Mr. Rager,” the warped persona pulling him ever closer to the grave. Cudi realizes that the outlet he’s chosen isn’t the gateway to happiness, yet his obsession with fulfilling the next high has blurred the lines beyond repair. Needing to put an end to his troubles, Cudi makes one last plea, knowing all too well the finality his decisions. Made for those fed up with their lot in life, the track is pure, unadulterated escapism, its chorus designed to be a dialogue between the jarring forces within that pull in opposite directions.
Producer: Emile
Album: Man on the Moon II: The Legend Mr. Rager
There is a startling sense security that comes from accepting the reason for one’s loneliness. This clarity is the very lifeforce “All Along,” a cinematic closer from MotM II on which “the lionhearted” quietly concedes the battle and embraces the rejection that has tortured his soul: “What I need hates me…All along/I guess I’m meant to be alone.” It’s one the most revealing and tragic tracks in Cudi’s entire discography.
Producer:Kid Cudi & Dot Da Genius
Album:A Kid Named Cudi
The song that started it all and eventually peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 is a window into the lonely stoner’s freeing late-night smoke session. Inspired by Geto Boys’ “Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” Cudi crafted a track that chronicles the remorse he felt after his uncle passed away. Unable to amend the way that the strained relationship played out and feeling bottled by the symptoms his depression (“Can’t seem to shake the shade”), Cudi pours his heart out as he tosses and turns late into the witching hour.
Producer: WZRD
Album: WZRD
Where Cudi’s despondency sometimes feels claustrophobic, the immediacy his cries for help on “Teleport 2 Me, Jamie” are euphoric. Heavy with longing, the song flips “Under Your Spell” by Desire, who were prominently featured in Ryan Gosling’s 2011 action thriller Drive. Dedicated to Cudi’s then girlfriend Jamie Baratta, “Teleport 2 Me, Jamie” finds him laying solitary in bed, grasping at the bitterly cold emptiness that is forbidding him from closing his eyes. The only “light” is the dull glow from the phone on his night stand, his last connection to something far out reach.
Producer: Dot Da Genius
Though it never received an ficial release, the hypnotic headbanger “Dat New New” stands as one Cudi’s most addictive deep cuts. Regardless whether it’s an ode to his trademark “hot shit” or his latest strain weed, “Dat New New” is a certified fresh salutations.
Producer: Nosaj Thing
Album:A Kid Named Cudi
“Man on the Moon (The Anthem),” which repurposes “Aquarium” f producer Nosaj Thing’s 2006 EP Views/Octopus, established Cudi the extraterrestrial, an alter ego whose anxious over thinking more ten than not made him feel like a stranger in his own skin. Interspersed throughout the song are Cudi’s silver-lined ramblings, both untethered from the expectations others and yet grounded in his insecurities.
Producer:Plain Pat
Album:A Kid Named Cudi
Drawing from a popular 18th century bedtime invocation and Band Horses’ “The Funeral,” “The Prayer” is Cudi’s prophetic mission statement to the deserted and downtrodden. Humbled by the reality his mortality and hopeful that the internal conflict that rages within his mind will prove to be a blessing in disguise, he whispers words comfort for those fighting their own demons. Buried just beneath the topsoil dejection lies the subtle humor wanting to be remembered in life for more than just “Apple Bottom jeans with the boots with the fur.”
Producer: benny blanco, E*Vax, Plain Pat, Dot Da Genius & Kid Cudi
Album: Kids See Ghosts
On Kids See Ghosts, Cudi’s collaborative project with Kanye West, no song feels more purposeful than “Reborn.” The freedom is biting, accentuated by the plodding drums that fill the song’s spacious atmosphere. Though emotional honesty and introspection have never been hard to come by in the music either artist, the quest toward rehabilitation feels more poignant than ever given the mental health struggles faced by both. Cudi’s rebirth feels particularly transcendent: after battling drug abuse and sharing a letter on his Facebook page acknowledging his issues, he has emerged on the other side like a phoenix from the ashes. Let the Cudi humming commence.
Producer: Emile
Album: Man on the Moon: The End Day
Cudi’s novel brand sad rap signaled a changing the guard at a time when the Shawn Carters the world were beginning to take a backseat to music that was more intimately engaged with hip hop’s growing youth movement. “Soundtrack 2 My Life” is the opening scene to Cudi’s story, a confessional that recounts the lengths his mother went to secure a happy life for her children, and the toll that the death his father had on him. Cudi’s isolated state, shrouded by the various coping methods that he turns to, sheds light on how he has processed the grief and loss his upbringing, and how the happiness that he so desperately craves continues to evade him. Saturated with some Cudi’s most potent songwriting to date, “Soundtrack 2 My Life” is singular and direct in its focus.
Producer: Dot Da Genius & Kid Cudi
Released as a loosie on SoundCloud back in 2015, “Love.” showcases a brighter side Scott Mescudi that had become increasingly rare in recent years. The track is resoundingly hopeful in its message: Cudi is happy to be alive and has come to grips with the fact that no matter the circumstances, he has a great deal to be thankful for. Ready to finally trust himself, he declares that he’s done running and is going to do whatever it takes to regain control his life. “Love.” is an impassioned and plainspoken reminder that Cudi remains steadfast in his desire to aid those in need. It’s an anthemic call-to-arms for anyone mired in the day-to-day stresses being human.
Producer: Ratatat
Album:Man on the Moon: The End Day
“Pursuit Happiness” summarizes Cudi’s never-ending trial and error process and his persistence in the face a fierce void that threatens to consume him. The potentially lethal fools gold that he latches on to (drugs and alcohol) provide a fleeting and temporary relief, but his refusal to quit chasing the attainment something so intangible is both parts beautiful and mystifying. Late-night drunk driving is juxtaposed with night terrors that sweat through his bed sheets and stain his conscious’ life-long search. Cudi presses an intimate understanding Shakespeare’s “all that glitters is not gold” that few will ever achieve. In the end, he simply wants to be happy, no matter what that might entail or how radical the consequences excess may be. It’s a song that is the embodiment an entire musical legacy.